Which countries have the largest military? This animation video will compare the top 10 largest armies in the world from 1816 to 2021 by active military personnel. To a large extent, the size of a country's army plays a role in the power of its military. During times of war, a country will increase the spending of its military and the size of its military. This pattern has been seen for centuries. Russo-Japanese War, American Civil War, Russian Civil War, Chinese Civil War, WW1, WW2, Vietnam War - during all of these times, either through additional government allocation or through drafting, the countries at war would increase their military sizes.
Watch on and take an adventure through centuries of history and wars to witness the size and scale of the top 10 largest armies in the world from 1816 to today.

Datasources: Our World In Data, Worldpopulationview, The Correlates of War Project, Stastica, Wikipedia
Music: Hearts of Iron 4